Here’s Where the 2024 Presidential Candidates Stand on Higher Education

Higher education is a top topic in the 2024 presidential election, especially following recent federal court decisions eliminating affirmative action in college admissions and halting student loan forgiveness.

The two major party presidential candidates, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, have vastly different views on issues such as college affordability, student debt, accreditation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Here’s where each of these candidates stand on the most pressing issues facing college students.

Tuition and fees have skyrocketed in recent years, leaving many wondering how each candidate will address the issue if elected.

Vice President Harris has a history of backing free college proposals.

As a U.S. senator, she was one of five original co-sponsors of the College for All Act of 2017. That proposal would have made public community colleges free for all U.S. citizens and erased tuition at four-year public colleges and universities for people making $125,000 per year or less.

Harris has also backed free college proposals proposed by President Joe Biden.

Biden has repeatedly tried to push plans for free community college through Congress, to no avail. His recent 2024 budget proposal included new plans for free community college, but neither of the two proposals gained significant traction.

It remains to be seen whether Harris will continue to champion this idea as a candidate.

Former President Trump put out his idea for a free, online university program he dubbed “The American Academy.”

In a video message on Nov. 1, he laid out his plan for an open-access program that would be free of “wokeness” and “jihadism.” His message lacked details for how such a university would function, but he did add that it would be paid for by “taxing, fining, and suing” private university endowments.

Trump also promised that any credentials awarded through the American Academy would be recognized by the federal government and government contractors. People can also earn “the full and complete equivalent of a bachelor’s degree” from the American Academy, he said.

The messaging, however, centered on how this program would be apolitical.

“We spend more money on higher education than any other country, and yet they’re turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers of many, many different dimensions,” Trump said. “We can’t let this happen.”

College affordability seemingly wasn’t a priority for Trump during his time in office.

The maximum Pell Grant award was $5,920 prior to Trump taking office. It rose to $6,495 by the time he left office, which is a 9.7% increase. When you adjust for inflation, however, the purchasing power of the Pell Grant program decreased by 1.6% over the course of his presidency, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Student loan debt is at an all-time high, but there are differing opinions on how the federal government should approach this issue.

The Biden-Harris administration has forgiven $168.5 billion in federal student loan debt since taking office, as of mid-July 2024.

Reports suggest Harris has played a role in that forgiveness, although the extent of her involvement is unclear. Politico reported in May 2022 that she and Biden were at odds over how much debt to forgive, with those reports suggesting she wanted wider debt forgiveness than Biden was originally willing to offer.

The administration ultimately landed on a plan that would forgive up to $10,000 in debt — $20,000 for those who received a Pell Grant — for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year or couples with a joint income below $250,000. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down this plan before it could go into effect.

Harris campaigned in 2019 on an idea to offer debt forgiveness only to Pell Grant recipients.

Still, Harris has championed some of the administration’s other debt forgiveness wins. In mid-July 2024, she highlighted the 950,000 public servants who have received total debt forgiveness through recent changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

Former President Trump is clearly not a fan of student loan forgiveness.

Trump celebrated the defeat of Biden’s widespread debt relief plan in a June campaign event.

“Today, the Supreme Court also ruled that President Biden cannot wipe out hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions of dollars, in student loan debt,” he said at the time, “which would have been very unfair to the millions and millions of people who paid their debt through hard work and diligence.”

He highlighted that the three justices he appointed to the Supreme Court all ruled against Biden’s debt forgiveness plan.

The Department of Education (ED) also halted the processing of borrower defense applications during his administration. Borrower defense is an avenue available for borrowers seeking debt relief due to predatory behavior from their college.

That’s not to say Trump never made any moves to grant student debt relief.

In 2019, Trump directed ED to remove barriers so that veterans with severe disabilities could see debt relief more easily. The move was expected to impact 25,000 veterans who previously didn’t qualify.

College accreditation agencies oversee the higher education system in the U.S. Both sides of the aisle seemingly agree those agencies are failing students, but they cannot find common ground on a solution.

Harris has expressed few views on college accreditation during her time in public office.

Perhaps her most outspoken stance came in June 2016 when she called on ED to revoke federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). This was the accreditor of Corinthian Colleges, which Harris sued in 2013 for predatory practices while California’s attorney general.

ED revoked ACICS’ recognition in 2022.

Beyond this, the Biden-Harris administration is currently making substantive changes to the U.S. accreditation system.

ED wrapped up negotiated rulemaking with higher education stakeholders regarding proposed regulatory changes to the accreditation system in early March 2024. The main proposals ED put forward, which some stakeholders downvoted, included:

Trump is planning a complete overhaul of the college accreditation system.

In a May 2023 campaign video, Trump vowed to fire many — potentially all — existing accreditation agencies.

“When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics,” he said.

He added that the federal government would then accept new accreditors to impose new standards over colleges. Those new accreditors would also be tasked with “removing all Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats,” he said.

Some aspects of this plan are seemingly impossible without major legislative action.

Eddy Conroy, senior advisor with the education policy program at New America, recently told BestColleges that the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) is the agency that oversees accrediting agencies. NACIQI is the only organization that can strip an accreditor of its power, and members of NACIQI’s board are appointed by ED, the House of Representatives, and the Senate on a rolling basis.

Additionally, current law prohibits ED from setting standards for accreditation agencies, he said.

The topic of DEI on college campuses has become a lightning rod issue over the past five years. The campaign trail promises to ignite more debate on the topic.

Harris has not directly addressed DEI policies on college campuses, but she has spoken often about equity.

“It’s about giving people the resources and the support they need so that everyone can be on equal footing and then compete on equal footing,” she said in a 2020 campaign video. “Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.”

Her now-famous “coconut tree” remarks came during a White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics event in May 2023.

Harris stressed the importance of having diverse college classrooms soon after the U.S. Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in college admissions.

“It is well established that all students benefit when classrooms and campuses reflect the incredible diversity of our nation,” she said.

“Colleges and universities provide opportunities for students to interact with Americans from all walks of life and learn from one another. By making our schools less diverse, this ruling will harm the educational experience for all students.”

Harris seemingly has not commented on the prospect of transgender college athletes being allowed to compete in sports matching their gender identity.

She, like President Biden, has also largely side-stepped “culture wars” issues like critical race theory in higher education.

Trump has become a staunch opponent of critical race theory (CRT). He often uses this one-time academic phrase to refer to any discussions of race or racism in classrooms.

“Students in our universities are inundated with [CRT],” he said during a late-2020 speech. “This is a Marxist document holding that America is a wicked and racist nation, that even young children are complicit in oppression, and that our entire society must be radically transformed.”

He banned federal agencies from holding trainings about systemic racism while in office. He also banned “divisive concepts” in federally funded programs.

Some colleges and universities suspended their DEI offices and programming as a result of this executive order. These institutions worried they could lose access to federal funding and that students could lose out on federal financial aid if their DEI offices remained.

Trump celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to ban the consideration of race in college admissions, otherwise known as affirmative action.

“People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our country, are finally being rewarded,” Trump said on Truth Social. “This is the ruling everyone was waiting and hoping for and the result was amazing.”

Trump vowed in May to direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in “racial discrimination” if reelected.

He is also an opponent of transgender college students being able to compete in sports based on their gender identity.

Trump has taken a slightly different stance when it comes to inclusion for international students.

In a June podcast, he said international students who graduate from a U.S. university should receive a green card to remain in the country. His campaign later clarified that only skilled graduates who can “make significant contributions to America” will be allowed to stay in the country, and only after “the most aggressive vetting process in U.S. history.”

The 2024 general election could be a pivot point for how for-profit colleges and universities are regulated moving forward.

Harris put for-profit colleges and universities in her crosshairs in 2013.

As attorney general of California, Harris sued Corinthians Colleges in 2013. Her suit alleged that the for-profit system engaged in false advertising and intentionally misled students to get them enrolled. She said at the time that the company targeted low-income California students through its “predatory scheme.”

Her office won a $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthians in 2016.

Harris mentioned her record of cracking down on bad actors in the for-profit industry during her first major speech as the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.

“As attorney general of California, I took on one of our country’s largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business,” Harris said.

Harris also investigated Bridgepoint Education, the operator of Ashford University, in 2013 as California’s attorney general.

Trump spent much of his presidency rolling back oversight rules regulating for-profit colleges and universities.

Former ED Secretary Betsy DeVos used the negotiated rulemaking process to loosen the gainful employment (GE) rule. Her leadership also made it more difficult for students to qualify for debt relief through borrower defense to repayment, which historically has been used more often by former students of for-profit colleges and universities.

Trump’s support of for-profit colleges and universities should come as no surprise.

He founded Trump University in 2005. While it was not an accredited university and did not grant college credit or degrees, it was a for-profit educational program that offered seminars in subjects like real estate and entrepreneurship.

During his administration, Trump also oversaw some actions favoring entities tied to for-profit colleges.

Shortly after taking office, his administration backed an Obama-era decision to terminate the recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. This was the agency that accredited now-defunct institutions including Corinthians Colleges and ITT Technical Institute.

However, Trump reinstated recognition of ACICS in 2018. Politico reported that Secretary DeVos did so despite her staff’s findings that ACICS “failed to meet federal standards.”